Walney Outbuildings

At Walney, letters from the Machen family show the construction and use of an ice house in 1854 on an old site that may have held an earlier one. Emmeline Machen wrote in December 1853 that work was being urged forward and that her father had consented to building it on the old site, while James Machen wrote on January 24, 1854, that the family had been gathering ice, that the ice house was nearly finished except for shingles, and that the shingles had arrived from the railroad. The ice house foundation remained as a hole in the ground, with its floor about 16 feet below ground level to take advantage of cool earth temperatures, stone walls rising several feet above ground, and a wooden roof above. For farm families, pond ice could chill drinks, make ice cream, keep dairy products from spoiling on the way to market, and preserve food in ice boxes common in kitchens by the mid-1800s. In February 1858, Emmeline wrote that cold weather after a snowstorm had allowed James to busily fill the ice house. In Virginia, ice harvesting usually began when ice reached 8 to 12 inches thick, or 6 inches in a bad year. The ice at Walney was likely cut from a pond near Walney Creek about 400 yards away, hauled by wagon or sled, and stacked in blocks of 40 pounds or more with straw packed around them for insulation so it could last through the summer and into the following fall. The family would have come daily to break off blocks for use at the farmhouse. The ice house burned by the late 1890s, was never rebuilt, and the pit was used as a trash dump in the early 20th century.

Chantilly, Virginia · United States